EFFORTS TO VISIT AYMAN NOUR CONTINUE; APPEAL DATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L CAIRO 001809

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

NSC STAFF FOR SINGH

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/23/2016
TAGS: PHUM KDEM EG
SUBJECT: EFFORTS TO VISIT AYMAN NOUR CONTINUE; APPEAL DATE
SET FOR MAY 18

REF: A. CAIRO 972


B. CAIRO 861

Classified by ECPO Minister Counselor Michael Corbin for
Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) Summary: The Embassy's attempts to visit imprisoned
opposition leader Ayman Nour have been unsuccessful so far,
but will continue. The Canadians are leading a new
multilateral effort to see Nour, in which the U.S.,
Australia, and a number of EU countries are participating.
Meanwhile, the Court of Cassation has agreed to hear Nour's
appeal on May 18. End summary.


2. (C) After numerous inconclusive interactions with the
Ministry of Interior in January and February, the Embassy was
finally told in mid-March that any requests by U.S. diplomats
to visit Ayman Nour should be submitted to the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs. On March 21, we submitted two separate
diplomatic notes requesting visits to Nour by visiting NEA
DAS Carpenter and poloff. The notes were flagged and
acknowledged by the MFA during a March 22 conversation
between NEA DAS Carpenter and Assistant Minister for American
Affairs Salama Shaker. The Embassy will also submit next
week a request to visit Nour through the office of the Public
Prosecutor, a channel used by the families of Egyptian
prisoners, including Nour's.


3. (C) In addition, after encouragement from Emboffs, an
informal group of Cairo's "like minded" diplomats will submit
next week a joint request to visit Nour. The request will be
submitted by the Canadian Embassy, which obtained clearance
from Ottawa to take the lead, and will include the U.S., a
number of EU states, and Australia.


4. (SBU) Meanwhile, Egypt's Court of Cassation announced that
it will hear Nour's appeal on May 18. The appeal hearing,
set less than five months after Nour's conviction, appears to
have been fast-tracked on the court's docket. We remain in
close touch with Nour's defense team and his spouse, Gameela
Ismail and will report further septel on the legal prognosis
of the case.



5. (C) Comment: The GOE is obviously in no hurry to grant
foreign diplomats access to Nour, though it has also been
careful not to explicitly refuse requests. We did not
experience similar problems obtaining permission to visit
Saad Eddin Ibrahim during his imprisonment in 2002, but his
status as an AmCit gave us a pretext we do not have with
Nour. We intend to keep "spamming" the GOE with visit
requests until we receive permission. End comment.
RICCIARDONE